Family Gets $3.25 Million Settlement After Woman, 20, Was Incorrectly Declared Dead, Found to Be Alive at a Funeral Home

The family of Timesha Beauchamp, a 20-year-old Michigan woman who was mistakenly declared dead in 2020, has reached a multi-million dollar settlement.

Beauchamp, who had cerebral palsy, was pronounced dead over the phone by an emergency room doctor at her Southfield, Mich., home in August 2020.

According to her family’s attorney, she was later transported to a funeral home, where a worker preparing to embalm her discovered she was still alive — breathing, with her eyes open.

Beauchamp was rushed to a hospital. She died about two months later, in October. Her family’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger of Fieger Law, said she suffered “massive brain damage” after being deprived of oxygen for too long following the erroneous death declaration.

Now, Beauchamp’s family will receive a $3.25 million settlement, Fieger Law confirmed. In a statement, the firm said that after years of litigation, the case reached a resolution that brought accountability for Beauchamp and her relatives.

The firm added that the outcome is “bittersweet,” noting that while the settlement may help the family move forward, it cannot undo what happened.

City officials in Southfield also addressed the settlement in a statement. They said that no resolution can reverse what occurred on August 23, 2020, or erase the family’s grief, and described the case as arising under extraordinarily difficult circumstances during the global pandemic.

Officials said they believed settlement was the appropriate way to resolve the matter given the complexity of the issues and the emotional toll on everyone involved. They added that the city remains committed to providing high-quality emergency medical services and hopes the settlement allows all parties to move forward.

In 2020, a spokesperson for the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office said the death declaration was made based on real-time medical information — including heartbeat and breathing — reported by first responders and EMS personnel.

In another earlier statement, a spokesperson for the Southfield Fire Department said responders followed all relevant city, county, and state protocols.

Beauchamp’s family later filed a lawsuit against Southfield EMS paramedics seeking $50 million, arguing she had been declared dead despite being alive, according to statements from attorney Fieger.

Last year, on the anniversary of Beauchamp’s death, her mother, Erica Lattimore, said she still intended to pursue justice.

“I’m not giving up,” Lattimore said, per WDIV-TV. “I will go through the long haul, however long it takes. She lived 20 years. If it takes 20 more years for this to get heard in court and God gives me the breath, I’m there.”